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Macy's will lay off 151 Workforce to be cut at distribution center in Cheshire BY MICHAEL C. JULIANO REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

CHESHIRE — Macy's Inc. plans to lay off more than a quarter of the nearly 600 employees at its Cheshire distribution center, the company told state officials this week.

The national department store chain notified the state Department of Labor on Thursday that it will lay off 151 workers at the 356,000-square-foot logistics and operations facility at 475 Knotter Drive. The notice, as required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, states that the workers will be dismissed from March 13 through March 26.

Macy's states the facility currently employs 594 employees, while records kept by the town indicate it the facility has 585 workers. There are no union workers at the facility, Macy's said.

Documents filed with the Labor Department list 19 job classifications to be affected by the layoffs. The positions of packer, high-bay equipment operator, and bagger operator account for almost half of the pending job cuts.

"The nature of the center hasn't changed, and the work at the center hasn't changed," Macy's spokesman Jim Sluzewski said Friday. "It's part of our effort to operate more efficiently in everything we do."

The documents also state the affected employees will be given a description of their benefits and information about the opportunity to transfer to open positions in nearby Macy's locations.

"We provide severance, but that's between us and the employees," Sluzewski said.

Macy's built the Cheshire building in 1989, when the parent firm was known as Federated Department Stores before the name change to Macy's, he said.

THE LAYOFFS ARE PART OF A RECENTLY announced initiative by Macy's, which also owns the higher-end Bloomingdale's chain, to cut 2,500 jobs companywide as a result of organizational changes, reducing its overall workforce to about 175,000 employees.

Other workers will be reassigned with new duties or transferred, and some positions will not be filled, the company said.

"What we've done is, across the country, we've looked at ways to operate more efficiently," Sluzewski said. "These 2,500 layoffs are spread out over about 900 locations across the country."

The company said it expects to save about $100 million a year as a result of the reorganization, which will involve combining its Midwest Region with its North Region to create a new North-Central Region.

The move will reduce the number of regions to seven from eight.

The Cheshire location will still be a significant private-sector employer despite the job cuts, Gerald L. Sitko, Cheshire's economic development coordinator, said Friday.

"You never want to see this happen," Sitko said. "It's unfortunate, but we weren't the only ones."

Macy's still maintains a large presence in town, including a 145,000-square-foot storage facility it leases at 181 West Johnson Ave., Michael Milone, Cheshire's town manager, said Friday.

"I'd hope that continues," he said. "Obviously, this is more of a corporate decision than a reflection on that facility."

The Labor Department's Rapid Response Team has reached out to Macy's to offer re-employment services for the affected workers, but the company has not responded yet, Labor Department spokeswoman Nancy Steffens said Friday.

MACY'S SAID COMPANYWIDE changes also include "realigning, combining and reducing some positions" in Macy's stores, and reducing staff and non-payroll costs in certain central office, administrative and back-of-the-house expenses across the company. Publicly traded Macy's also operates 10 stores in Connecticut, including one in Waterbury's Brass Mill Center shopping mall.

"It would be a small number at any one store — one, two or three employees out of 200 workers," said Sluzewski, who didn't know whether any layoffs would take place at Macy's Connecticut stores. "We're working with these individuals to see if there are any other positions in the company that are available to them and that they're interested in."

The firm also plans to eliminate the district planner role for some soft home categories in its Merchandise Planning organization.

Macy's said it will close five underperforming stores — in Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, New York and Utah — while also opening eight new Macy's and Bloomingdale's stores in California, Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, New York and Puerto Rico.

The Cincinnati-based retailer said it will operate 844 department stores in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam once the changes are implemented.

At the same time, Macy's continues to add positions in other parts of the company, including online operations, direct-to-consumer fulfillment and new stores.

Macy's shares, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "M," on Friday gained 4 cents to close at $55.84.

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